Arrive at the stunning Birch Community venue in Hertfordshire, surrounded by 55 acres of nature and only 30 minutes from London. This venue is described as the perfect escape for explorers, discover more about the venue. 

Hear from Matt Barker, Features Editor at Campaign. Matt believes that driving trust has long been a core focus for many brands and that this forum is the perfect opportunity to hear from experts on the opportunity and challenges this brings. 

The leading expert in creating advocates within the hospitality community, Nidal Ramini, Advocacy Director at Brown-Forman, will sit down and have a chat with Matt Barker to discuss what lessons can b2c marketers learn from his b2b experience of creating customers who adopt and recommend Brown-Forman spirits including Jack Daniel’s & Woodford Reserve.

Winning hearts and minds of the on-trade industry is incredibly important to brand owners as they have little control over how the brand is served, how it tastes (cocktails), how it's presented, how much it costs and crucially if the consumer is even aware which brand they are drinking ("Gin & Tonic please”). Nidal and Matt will talk about how advocacy within the trade leads to meaningful difference with the consumer and about the “guest” being a very different person from the “consumer”. 

Join the doers and movers of brand marketing for a debate on why it's crucial to focus on creating advocates. Making strategic decisions about investing in advocacy vs bigger awareness is a challenging task – what helps to create advocates for your brand, what are the financial benefits and how to measure their impact? How to ensure that the brand’s paid influencers are not a discrediting force of genuine advocacy and word of mouth? You'll hear about successful advocacy campaigns and learn how to create a memorable customer journey to encourage advocacy. Don't miss the opportunity to use the learnings from this session to build an effective advocacy programme for your brand.

Grab some refreshments and catch up with your peers and make new connections

Meet with suppliers during your pre-arranged 1:1 meetings

Audiences are becoming increasingly sceptical of what they’re being sold/told online, the media landscape is overcrowded, the emergence of exciting new platforms is at its peak and competition for meaningful engagement has never been greater. The good news is that people really do want to see brands that speak to them on social media. The bad news is that many brands are pushing out content that is getting low engagement and limited viewership. Understanding your audiences, which social platforms they’re on and what they’re obsessed with is key to delivering an engaging and authentic experience to consumers in a digital world.

This session will:

- Explore how acting more like a broadcaster leads to long term audience engagement, advocacy and loyalty

- Highlight how to identify and deliver for the different audience segments to nurture consumer relationships

- Reveal key considerations for brands in understanding their purpose in digital content and where to allocate spend

- Explain methods and frameworks for benchmarking, analysing and identifying opportunities for growth on social media

- Include soundbites from Steve Dool, Brand Director - Depop, Lucy Banks, Head of Partnership Solutions and Global Business Marketing -TikTok and Kirsty Slone, Social & Digital Director - Warner Bros. Discovery 

During this time you'll attend a roundtable delivered by expects and enjoy a wholesome activity. There are an array of fun events and activities available at the Birch Community Hotel, activities for this event will be announced soon! 

Take the time to absorb and reflect on the mornings sessions while catching up with colleagues

During this time you'll attend a roundtable delivered by expects and enjoy a wholesome activity. There are an array of fun events and activities available at the Birch Community Hotel, activities for this event will be announced soon! 

Grab some refreshments and catch up with your peers and make new connections

It is an important touchpoint of the customer journey you can’t ignore, so is your brand ready to join the short-form video revolution? 

Our challenger brands panellists who are nailing TikTok will share their tips on how to tap into the power of this trendy platform in pursuit to grow awareness and advocacy for a brand. Simply Roasted Crisps launched a pop-up pick ‘n’ mix crisp bar in Central London that went viral having gained 3m+ impressions on TikTok. IMPOSSIBREW became the #1 most followed beer brand on Tiktok. Having made their brands an overnight success on next to no budget, Ruth and Mark will shed light on TikTok’s challenges and pitfalls to avoid. 

2023 is the year for brands to realise the power of investing and engaging with communities on social media. When engaged and nurtured they can be the most loyal fans your brand has ever had and the best advocates. Brand activity will help build a community following but how do you keep a community engaged and connected beyond the hype so they become true advocates for your brand?

We'll kick start the session with a presentation looking at the power of organic social and how your brand can use the social cycle to build communities. 

We'll show this in practice as we look at some brands who have used the power of organic to build communities and keep the conversation going. 

The session will end with an interactive session demonstrating the power of social and communities

Meet with suppliers during your pre-arranged 1:1 meetings

With brands needing to make the most of their marketing budget now more than ever, we look at play-safe marketing strategies to drive brand experience. Our stellar panellists from the legendary Searcys restaurants, champagne bars and event spaces, the successful Bloom & Wild flower delivery service and the almighty E.ON energy provider crack on with the biggest question: how to leverage data to enable personalised and engaging customer experiences to encourage brand loyalty and advocacy? Together they’ll share insights into customers’ behaviour and compare the effectiveness of marketing channels. 

Matt will summarise the day and leave you with some closing thoughts

At the end of day one, you'll be able to check in for your overnight stay at the Birch Community. Take the time to relax in your private rooms which are designed to remove the pressures of daily life, a place where you can switch off and enjoy the country-house atmosphere after a long day of learning

Enjoy a delicious country style dinner while catching up with colleagues old and new. Continuing with the relaxation theme enjoy music by a Bossa Nova band who'll be entertaining you with a fusion of jazz and samba music.

Overnight guests will enjoy a seated buffet breakfast.

Start off the day with opening remarks from Matt Barker

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